A group of 31 adolescents are putting up a play titled "Paheliyan" (A bunch of riddles).
The 40 minute play followed by a 10 minute musical performance is part of an "Inclusion Mela" being facilitated by Mazil Mystics and The Roleplay Productions in collaboration with CYC (ComMutiny - The Youth Collective) & Pravah, Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS), Manzil and American Center.
"The children who have been part of this production have been facing a lot of gender discrimination in settle way at home, neighbourhood, with friends and in the schools they been going. I have been hearing stories how mothers are advising, ordering, conditioning their daughters to be and think, in a certain way in the society," says Anish Singh founder of Roleplay Productions.
The play and the musical performance is set to question identity, stereotype, bias and judgments as a male and a female.
The play is purely based on improvisation skills and the participant has come up with the stories and dialogue.
"Who gets priority to eat food at dining table? How the explanation, justification of any act is given 'tu ni kar sakti tu ladki ha' 'ye tu kyon karegi' ' vo kar sakta hai, ja sakta hai vo ladka hai' ' usko koi kuch ni bolega' ' vo ladka hai sambhaal lega' ' tum ladki ho fas jaogi' such dialogues are endlessly portrayed in the play," says Singh.
The second deals with how gender is practiced at home between children, how do children pick gender roles, responsibility, privileges and start practicing it at home with their siblings.
"My brother is allowed to go out or come late at night, but I am not. Last week I got late from my music practice and my brother started scolding me. I had a big fight with him that if he can go out at night, why I can not? And if he is so worried about me, why he can't take all the responsibilities," says Preeti Arya, BA (3rd year), one of the performers and a member of Manzil Mystics.